Sen. Marco Rubio on the dangers of investing in Chinese companies: Not a Biden administration priority

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., argued on Thursday that the potential dangers of investing in Chinese companies is not a priority for the Biden administration. 

The Florida senator also accused "woke corporations" of influencing the administration. 

Rubio made the comments on "Mornings with Maria" on Thursday, noting that a lot of people "have made a lot of money" by "investing other people’s money in China." 

"There are a lot of people and a lot of companies that have made a lot of money gaining a small percentage of this very large market and they want that to continue," he went on to say. 

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"For a lot of these people, it’s not what’s going to happy ten years from now, they won’t be here ten years from now, they want to know much money can they make for their fund, for their investors, for their company over the next two to three years and by the time this crashes, or whatever terrible thing happens, they’ll be long gone." 

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence vice chairman then pointed out that in many cases it is not "their money that they are risking" and warned that the situation could pose "a risk for the country because what we’re dealing with here is not just a market failure." 

Rubio argued that in this case, "the government decides" whether it wants to collapse an industry, a company or an American investment in China and "they can do it overnight" since "it would be a government action."

"It would be something that they would take on, in many cases, deliberately as a geopolitical chess move," he went on to argue. "This continues because we have a ruling class in American finance that is deeply invested in short-term profits from China and care nothing about its long-term implications on the country or our national security."

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment. 

Last month, the Biden administration reportedly cleared the way to sell microchips, which are currently scarce components, to China’s communications giant Huawei, amid a global semiconductor shortage tied to inflation in the auto and tech industries. 

Trump-era restrictions cut off licenses that would allow vendors to sell microchips to Huawei for 5G devices, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources close to the matter. But the Biden administration’s move would allow less sophisticated chips to be sold to the firm for other purposes, including video screens for cars and trucks.

The Communist Party-linked telecoms firm had been sanctioned by the Trump administration amid security and privacy concerns on a global scale. Huawei filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission in February disputing the claim it is a threat to U.S. national security.

After President Biden appeared ready to continue his predecessor’s firm approach to Huawei, the firm hired lobbyist Tony Podesta, the brother of former top Obama aide John Podesta, to try and improve ties with the new administration in July.

News of the waivers, reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars, prompted immediate demands for answers from Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate.

On Thursday, Rubio told FOX Business host Maria Bartiromo that he believes the Biden administration has an "insane allergy to anything Trump."  

"Basically If Trump did, it doesn’t matter if it was a good idea, if Trump did it, they’re going to do the opposite," he explained. 

"And I think the same is playing out a little bit in China," Rubio continued. "If Trump was tough on China in one way, they want to be loose with China in another way." 

He stressed that the Biden administration wants "to do the opposite of everything Trump does" and argued that those moves have led to a "border crisis" and "a fiasco in Afghanistan."

"It put them in a very difficult position and the country in a very bad spot," Rubio told Bartiromo. 

He also argued that Wall Street corporations "are enormous and big supporters of the Democratic Party and of Joe Biden" and "generally align with them on virtually everything, except maybe capital gains tax," as well as "a couple of other things."   

Rubio stressed that those firms "most certainly" align with the Democratic Party and Biden on social issues and are "having an influence on this administration and they’re telling them to back off." 

In a FOX Business op-ed published on Thursday, Rubio explained how he believes "the woke elites running corporate America" can be handled. 

In the op-ed and speaking with Bartiromo on Thursday, Rubio argued that "America’s corporate elite kowtow to the woke, Marxist mobs that dominate the internet and Hollywood."

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He explained that he is introducing the Mind Your Own Business Act "to empower shareholders to take action when a company follows the latest woke, Marxist fads: boycotting a state, denying services to politically disfavored groups, or remaking their workforces to advance concepts like critical race theory." 

Rubio said his bill "would put the burden of proof on the company to show that these actions were in shareholders’ best interests, and make corporate officers personally liable if they can’t prove it." 

He told Bartiromo that companies should adhere to "a higher standard" of proof that decisions were made because it’s in the best interest of their business model and shareholders, not just "kowtowing to pressure from China or pressure from the woke and cancel culture in America."

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FOX Business’ Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.